What do the children need?

The children are taken to a child guidance cell located on the premises of the home, in groups of 10 every day. “At the child guidance cell we teach them book-binding, screen printing, gardening, plumbing, etc, but this takes place only occasionally. We need a special teacher who will impart non-formal education. The suggestion has been put forward many times, and we are still waiting,” says Vasanti Kashid, a social worker who works with the children.

Although there have been sporadic efforts to provide better educational opportunities at the observation homes, they have largely been unsuccessful.

"There must also be a change in the mindset. Children who have committed offences have to live with the guilt all their lives. They must be shown some direction as they are unable to cope with life outside once they are released."

Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Ram Belwadi, a retired IAS officer, says: “It is a sheer poverty of ideas. Financial support is available from the government, and local funds are also available. But what facilities there are in the remand home depends entirely on the superintendent. We must ask ourselves what the children need - that is our primary goal.”

The primary task of providing vocational education and training to children is to increase their chances of employment when they are released, and thereby reduce recidivism. However, there has been no sustained commitment to this issue by the government or civil society.

NGOs sometimes visit observation homes to conduct various games and cultural programmes. But, while this undoubtedly provides the children an opportunity to interact with ‘outsiders’ it does not equip them to become independent and responsible members of society.

Vikas Walunkar, a journalist who grew up in a remand home in the 1950s has fond memories of his stay there.

"There must also be a change in the mindset of people. Children who have committed offences have to live with the guilt all their lives. They must be shown some direction as they are unable to cope with life outside once they are released”, he says

Slow dismissal of cases

Another area of serious neglect is the shockingly slow justice system. At the time of writing this article there were over 3,500 cases pending with the juvenile justice court. The two ‘non-judiciary’ members have to be present at the time of the hearing; the judge cannot sign the deposition in their absence.

There are also delays due to witnesses not turning up in court and delays in cross-examination.

Independent lawyer Ravi Sonawane who was present at one of the court hearings says, “The juvenile court meets only twice a week, for half a day. How many cases can they look at?”

Add to this the fact that very often members of the Juvenile Justice Board are not well-versed in the Act itself. “We are not clear ourselves. We have asked them to give us training, but it hasn’t happened,” says Anuradha Sahasrabudhe, a member of the JJB and the director of Child Line, Pune.

This is a charge the State Department for Women and Child Welfare strongly refutes. “We have conducted training,” says Mahendra Gaikwad, district officer of the Department for Women and Child Welfare in Pune.

Caught in the midst of unending bureaucracy and indifference are young boys and girls whose future hangs in the balance. As Pune-based social worker Poornima Gadia says: “The situation cannot be reversed unless there is a change in attitude at all levels.”